Fearow

I've never even seen someone using a Fearow competitively. I mean, it could work, but it's still just too outclassed by all the other Flying types out there like Staraptor and Honchkrow.
 
Fearow has it rough. Too many other physical-offense birds outclass him.

Staraptor rules the roost as King of UU, and he's a likely candidate for the BL ban. Perfectly potent in standard OU, and can pull off both Choice Sets or LO. High attack and speed, awesome abilities, and a great movepool for what he does. He's just a solid Pokemon.
Honchkrow is next. He's a beast in RU thanks to Sucker Punch, Moxie and Insomnia (which allows Superpower and Heat Wave from 4th gen). If Raptor gets the boot Krow is probably going to largely take his place in UU, especially since he's hovering just below the cut-off even now.
Next up, in terms of actual power, would be Braviary. Strong, reasonably bulky, and a decent movepool mean he's objectively a pretty good Pokemon, but he's just too similar to Staraptor to warrant using in most cases. He's solid in NU (which is awesome this gen), and, as with Honchkrow, he will probably bump up if Staraptor goes to BL. He could partially fill Krow's RU shoes, and would probably see some more UU usage, too.
Swellow comes next, but from what I've seen he's more popular than Braviary, no doubt due to the fact that he fills a totally different, less Staraptor-shadowed role. Guts Facade and speedy Brave Birds are awesome, but unlike the three above he can't hit Steels and Rocks, which hurts him a lot.

Fearow probably comes next. Sniper and Drill Run help him a long way. Above Pidgeot due to higher Speed and Attack (even though he's dying for BB), likely better than Dodrio thanks to Drill Run, certainly above Farfetch'd, and higher than poor Unfezant, who actually has surprisingly good stats but NO useful moves to compliment them properly.
In spite of this, Fearow is just outclassed. His new toys, as cool as they are, don't help warrant using him over the better birds. Still gets an A for Awesomeness in my book, though.
 
Fearow is quite frankly a example of Gen 1 stat distributions being stupid. Movewise Fearow has all the tools it could ask for but none of the stats to go with it.
 
Staraptor is already banned from UU, so the best Flying type in UU is probably Honchkrow, and Yanmega is the best Bug/Flying type with its' SpecLens and Speed Boost sets.
 
Well what about the vulture and its bone rush? 3 hits is slightly weaker than a drill run and 4 is an earthquake ;S

Anyways, next gen they shoukd give a whole bunch of firsties evolutions!! Fearow, Raticate, Hypno, and Carnivine because its awesome and has an illogical weakness to the type it is supposed to eat (i propose an ability that makes bug attacks do 1/4 damage while grass attacks gain extra damage to equivalate super effective damage on a pure bug)
 
Well, Mandibuzz's Bone Rush can break Subs and Sturdy while continuously attacking, while Drill Run can't. :3 Drill Run does have a high critical hit rate, I believe.
 
Of course, Fearow's higher Attack makes Drill Run often significantly stronger (and it does have a "high" crit ratio). A Mandibuzz that invests much into Attack probably won't get very far.

Seems like WingedKnight summed the birds up pretty well. Fearow will need to be isolated from the others to be the top of any tier's food chain.
 
Of course, Fearow's higher Attack makes Drill Run often significantly stronger (and it does have a "high" crit ratio). A Mandibuzz that invests much into Attack probably won't get very far.

Seems like WingedKnight summed the birds up pretty well. Fearow will need to be isolated from the others to be the top of any tier's food chain.
Well, Mandibuzz isn't used for its' attack, although a NP Mandibuzz could technically work. And Fearow isn't too bad, but it does need to be isolated from its' competitors to really shine though. Bone Rush could be used to break Subs, Sturdy, and Focus Sash though, if nothing else.
 
I think im still gonna make a SubAttack Fearow just for the lawls. Two Drill pecks may be stronger, but two Hammer Arms are stronger than Focus Punch (Idk, first fighting movw that popped in my head). The lone benefit of Sky Attack is a high Crit rate, and a flinch chance to boot. Time it like a Focus Punch with Sniper and 50% crit (Drifblim can pass Focus Energy and a beefy Sub) and thats deadly.
 
I think im still gonna make a SubAttack Fearow just for the lawls. Two Drill pecks may be stronger, but two Hammer Arms are stronger than Focus Punch (Idk, first fighting movw that popped in my head). The lone benefit of Sky Attack is a high Crit rate, and a flinch chance to boot. Time it like a Focus Punch with Sniper and 50% crit (Drifblim can pass Focus Energy and a beefy Sub) and thats deadly.
Sky Attack doesn't actually have a high crit rate. The in-game description is a lie.
 
wait... really?
Yes. The move is very rarely used, so I can see why you might not know that. However, it's what all the Pokemon sites say about it. For instance:
Smogon Description of Sky Attack said:
Hits the turn after being used. 30% chance to flinch opponent.
Bulbapedia goes so far as to mention that the high critical hit chance is erroneous in its trivia section for the move.

Thus unfortunately for Fearow, it does not have a physical STAB move to abuse Sniper with, its only high crit rate moves compatible being Drill Run (which, though admittedly a good move coverage-wise and a welcome addition for something which's previous only ground options were Mud Slap and Hidden Power Ground, is non-STAB) and Razor Wind (which is a special attack and requires a charge up turn).
 
Maybe if the tiers get sorted out more it'll settle in NU well. Being able to hit with super-effective damage on electric types is something no other bird can do.
 
Maybe if the tiers get sorted out more it'll settle in NU well. Being able to hit with super-effective damage on electric types is something no other bird can do.
Then again, the only things not hit harder by Swellow's Guts boosted Facade are Magneton and Rotom (since it's immune to both).
 
Fearow has a cool niche of being the only normal/flying bird to have a good ground type attack. He's got good enough speed and attack to abuse it, and drill peck isn't that bad of a move. It's got the same power as dragon pulse. Plus he can use a STAB return to boot.
 
The problem with Fearow competitively is that he's super predictable, and doesn't have the raw stats to overwhelm stuff. If you've got the stats, you can just plow your way through opponents. If you're unpredictable, you can gain an edge since your opponent doesn't know what to expect. in Fearow's case, everyone knows he's running two STABs and Drill Run and his Attack/Speed aren't high enough to scare walls, so he's easy to play around, even in the lower tiers. He could be decent in NU, but there are still better pokes even down there. If only he had Dodrio's Base Stats...
 
In Generation 1, Fearow was a pretty good Pokemon, but as the Generations went on, more and more Pokemon took the spot that Fearow once held. Even though it was always in a low tier, it still had a niche of a powerful STAB Drill Peck.
 
I think in maybe as a BP recipient Fearow might find a place, especially on Crit passing or a buff dance in the style of sword or dragon. Drifblim or (i think? Some norm rodent) Furret can both BP focus energy, a Sub, and maybe even a crit berry to give Snipers two stages of crit with a wall in front. Drapion, Kingdra, and Fearow are the best users of Sniper, although I would only use 2 of them on a team at a time. With a 50% shot of having a base 240 BP Drill Run (or however crit applies) will undoubtably hurt.
 

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